Over already!?

Well, just like anytime you plan like crazy for a party and then the actual party date arrives and your guests show up....or anytime you have a child who only gets to come see you 3x/year...the time FLIES by. I can't believe Rhiya has been here a month already. We've packed so much into these few days, though she may feel otherwise. There's been the zoo, the aquarium, the planetarium, swimming and swimming and swimming. Treehouse building, church camp, 4-wheelin', etc. All in one month we've cured our 2 youngest of a potentially fatal disease, worried and prayed and been reassured about the life of our new one on the way.


One day in particular that we spent together has been my favorite, so I'll share a few pictures of it here.

Cedar Hill has an outdoor mall with a water feature in the middle. We picked up an edible arrangement on the way and sat at the bench eating fruit in the shade. Let me tell you, it has been a SCORCHER, too. We're talking 103+ degrees and WONDERFULLY dry. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this or not, but I adore this weather. 75 with 80% humidity is too hot for me, but today was 107 with no moisture at all and absolutely perfect.
Corbin loved the fruit, too. The watermelon was perfectly squishy for him to gnaw on.

Of course, the only fruit I really want in the whole arrangement are the chocolate covered strawberries, but so does everyone else! Punks. But of course I shared because I'm a nice mommy...okay, so maybe I threw a little fit, but I still shared ;)

Pretty daisy with a pretty daisy!

Help yourself, why don't ya, Violet? Can you guess what she was picking?

See that poor boy's eye? He had to finally get it probed because it blew up for the 3rd time. It's gone down now, but he may still need to see the plastic surgeon. We're praying that's not the case. The babies were also diagnosed with Whooping Cough and everyone in the house was on antibiotics. We were quarantined for several days, so this trip was our victory, (we beat it!) trip. Hahaha.

Then we got to play. YAY! Corbin and I sat in the shade while the big girls played in the water and had a blast!

This water feature is so nice. Apparently everyone within a 25 mile radius had the same idea we did that day. We had way too much fruit, so we offered the leftovers to a table full of mommies and kids near us. In the end about 15 kids got to be happy with the fruit besides just mine. It was a great blessing.

Rhiya is a great big sister and helps with the babies lots. I'm sure she gets tired of it, but that's how we get out of the house, so she deals. And in the end she gets a lot of joy from them. (no less than the joy they get from her!)

She decided to let Corbin in on the fun and one of the squirters got him right in the butt and he freaked.

So instead she filled the edible arrangement bucket with water and let him splash in the shade. He loved that!

After we got our fill of sun and water, we went to Wetzels Pretzels and had some lunch, (AWESOME!) and a little bird told us that the cupcake place was giving out free cupcakes. They had almost 30 different flavors! Rhiya had mint chocolate chip, GraceAnne got red velvet because it had a pink sprinkle flower on top and Violet had vanilla. Violet only ate the frosting.

And since everyone was tired on the way home, they all konked out. It was a fabulous day!

I have a ton more pix, but I'll take a few more days to enjoy the rest of Rhiya's visit. Love and miss you all!